1032 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — TUBINARES. 



nostrils do not or only partly appear from above; tube also bigher and wider at end than 

 at base. Wiugs comparatively rather short; primaries broad and stiff, 2d as long as 1st. Tail 

 rather short, of 12 feathers, the middle pair projecting and a little acuminate, lateral ones more 

 rounded and rapidly graduated. Feet large and stout, as in PuJJinus ; tarsus compressed, 

 shorter than middle toe and claw ; outer toe louger than middle ; tip of outer claw about reach- 

 ing base of middle. A genus remarkably connecting Fulmars with Shearwaters; but so near 

 the latter that it was made a sub-genus oi Puffinus ia the A. 0. U. Lists, 1886-95. Two spe- 

 cies of large size and robust forin, chiefly of Southern seas; P. gelidus, the Ice Shearwater of 

 Antarctic seas and the following : 



P. ciner'eus. (Lat. cinereous, ashy.) Smutty-nosed Shearwater. Black-tailed 

 Shearwater. Adult : Upper parts cinereous, nearly uniform, but some feathers with paler 

 edges ; under parts white, without line of demarcation from color of upper parts : tail, crissum, 

 and rent blackish; lining of wings, axillars, and some feathers on flanks, brownish-cinereous ; 

 quills blackish-cinereous on outer webs and tips, paler internally and basally, with brown 

 shafts. Bill yelloiv; nasal case, culmen to the hook, cutting edge and groove of lower man- 

 dible blacJc, these varied colors conspicuous in life ; feet (dried) dingy greenish with yellow 

 webs. Large: Length about 19.00; wing 12.50-13.50, averaging 13.00; tail 5.00-5.75, 

 wedge-shaped, 12-feathered, outer feathers 1.25, shorter than middle; bill (chord of culmen) 

 1.80, 0.67 high and 0.60 wide at base; nasal tubes nearly 0.50; tarsus 2.40; middle toe and 

 chiw 2.88. Southern Seas ; accidental off coast of California (Monterey). A peculiar species, 

 very different from any of the following, approaching the Fulmars. Cinereous Fulmar or 

 Petrel of Latham, whence Proc cinerea Gm. 1788 ; Proc. melanura Vieill, 1823. Proc. 

 hcesitata Forst. Descr. Anim. 1844, p. 208 ; Gould, B. Aust. 1849, pi. 47. Puffinus hcesi- 

 tatus Lawr. Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y. vi, 1853, p. 5. Proc. adamastor Schlegel, 1863. 

 Adamastor typus Bp. 1855. Puffinus cinereus Steph. 1825 ; Lawr. in Bd. B. N. A. 1858, 

 p. 835. Adamastor cinereus CouES, Proc. Phila. Acad. 1864, p. 119, p. 142. Priofinus cine- 

 reus Jacq. and PucH. Voy. 1853, Zool. iii, p. 145; Coues, Proc. Essex Inst, v, 1868, p. 303; 

 A. 0. U. Suppl. List, Auk, Jan. 1899, p. 101. Puffinus {Priofinus) cinereus A. O. U. Lists, 

 1886-95, No. [97]. Puffinus (Priofinus) melanurus Coues, Key, 1st ed. 1872, p. 330. Pri- 

 ofinus melanurus Coues, Check-List, 2d ed. 1882, p. 127; Key, 2d-4th eds. 1884-90, p. 783. 

 Puffinus kiihlii Cass. Proc. Phila. Acad. 1862, p. 327 (error; not of Boie). 

 PUF'FINUS. (Latinized from Eng. j)uffin, a very old name of Fratercula arctica, a bird of 

 the Auk family, transferred by mistake of Ray's to the "Puffin of the Isle of Man, Puffinus 

 anglorum," the Manx Shearwater; origin and meaning uncertain.) Shearwaters. Bill 

 nearly or about as long as head, varying in slenderness, a little higher than broad at base, 

 compressed for the rest of its extent; end much hooked, tips of both mandibles decurved; 

 gonys concave. Nasal tubes short, only about | the length of culmen, falling short of the 

 hook by a space equal to or greater than their own length, broad and depressed, obliquely 

 bevelled off at end, the partition thick ; nostrils oval, in full view from above. Wings 

 long, thin, and pointed, folding beyond tail ; 1st primary longest. Tail rounded or rather 

 wedge-shaped, of 12 feathers. Feet very large and stout ; tarsus much compressed, thin-edged 

 in front as behind, equal to middle toe with or without claw ; outer toe about as long as 

 middle, but its claw much smaller; tip of inner claw scarcely or not reaching base of middle; 

 hind toe a mere knob. Embracing numerous species, of moderate and small size; most of 

 them bicolor, dark above and white below, others uniformly sooty. These birds shear the 

 waters of all oceans, and seem independent of land except in the breeding season, when they 

 come ashore to lay their single white egg in holes under ground. Their restlessness, or some 

 other characteristic, has shrouded them in mystery and made at least one species (P. yelkouan 

 of the Bosphorus) the subject of a myth; for these uneasy birds are supposed to embody lost 

 human souls. 



